A Return to the Return of the Jedi

I watched the original Star Wars trilogy when I was seven years old. In a way, I consider myself lucky because until my dad started showing me and my brother the Star Wars movies, I really had not watched many movies at all besides a couple animated kiddie classics such as Nemo and Wall-E. So when I saw A New Hope, I was enthralled by its plain awesomeness and could not wait to see more. The Empire Strikes Back delivered on cool and innovative visuals but it felt overall more subdued to me than its predecessor did and sequel would. I also had the main twist of the movie spoiled for me before I even really what Star Wars was. My name is Luke, so ever since I was able speak and tell people my name, there have been people who quoted me Darth Vader’s iconic line to me. This made me feel a little underwhelmed when the credits rolled for The Empire Strikes Back. Then a week or two later, we watched The Return of the Jedi and it was everything I loved about A New Hope and better and everything I wanted out of The Empire Strikes Back.

Scene of Darth Vader meeting arriving Emperor with assembled army

That was the first time a movie made me think that much and I laid in bed after the movie thinking how cool the Emperors lightning looked, how epic the space battle to destroy the second Death Star was, how shocked I actually was when the Emperor revealed that the Death Star was actually operational and started blowing up ships, and how much I actually cared for Darth Vader’s sacrifice in the end. I remember actually thinking Luke was stupid for trying to turn his father back to the light side. Although Vader’s redemption might have been more predictable to me had I seen more movies or had been older, it still stuck with me in a big way as I had spent 3 movies thinking he was absolute evil. I had never considered that someone shown to be monstrous could turn around and save the day and it stuck with me.  It was not just the writing that impressed me. More than anything else it was a cinematic masterpiece to me. The details and colors in this movie were beyond anything I had ever seen before and were more fun and creative than even its two antecedents. Like Roger Ebert said in his 1983 review, it was filled with a “sense of visual richness”.

Scene of Jabba surrounded by various aliens

Critics and fans almost always rank Return of The Jedi as the weakest out of the original series but from my personal experience with it, it is the best out of the original three. Upon rewatching it, I was expecting to have to ignore outdated effects and visuals but a combination of CGI updates and excellent practical filmmaking made it look incredibly good for its age and as good as I remembered which came as a surprise to me. The speeder chase is still just as gripping, Obi-Wans ghost looks just as ghostly, and the flight into the center of the Death Star is just as exciting and cohesive. They were able to make all that seem real at a time where computers were just barely starting to have Graphical User Interfaces. If anything this movie has only gotten better over time.

 

4 Comments

  1. Juliet Rojas says:

    Hi Luke! I would like to say that I really enjoyed the entire series of Star Wars. I never got into Star Wars up until this year and I am so glad I got into it. The only reason why I started watching the rest of the Star Wars movies, including this one that you are talking about, was because I was curious to watch the clone wars animated series. I am very surprised the critics and fans argued their dislike of the “Return of The Jedi.” I have heard that the fanbase tends to be quite toxic when they are not satisfied with a lot of the characters, setups, and acting/actors with the series. Personally, I too thought this movie, in particular, was really great! What I admire about your post was your thoughts on the redemption of Darth Vador. You put out your opinion very well and I have nothing to argue about your post!

  2. Soonph-Phansofa says:

    Hi Luke, I watched the original Star Wars trilogy when I was 7 years old as well, which is pretty crazy. That’s because I saw those movies in the 80’s when it played on a local television network. It’s cool to learn that you thought the original Star Wars trilogy was a cinematic masterpiece even though it was made in the late 70s, early 80s. Many people felt the same, it’s no wonder why the original trilogy has been re-released so many times. I admired how you added those screenshots to your post. You added Roger Ebert’s review which mentioned a sense of visual richness, and the two screenshots are a great example of that.

  3. Barry-Matsushita says:

    Hey Luke, it sounds like you have some great memories of the movie. It’s a great series but sadly I haven’t watched it in a long time, but I do agree that the special affects are pretty extraordinary for such an old movie. What I liked about your post and hope to incorporate into mine next time is how you carried us through your thought process about the movie, shaping it into your own memoir.

  4. Ashton-Brooks says:

    Hi!
    I love how you touched on the other movies as well. Both Empire Strikes Back, and Return of The Jedi are such iconic pieces of cinema. I remember watching reruns of the Star Wars trilogy on TBS as a kid. See, I’m Gen-Z so I never got to experience history before my eyes. Especially when they came out because they posed such a huge landmark. It’s one of the only movies that people constantly reference, even today. When the end of Return of The Jedi rolled around, we, the audience, got to see the antagonist turn into the protagonist. Which was such a huge turning point in how the audience viewed someone, like Darth Vader. None of the sequels (while interesting in their own way) can compete with the originals, as they are quite literally a cinematic masterpiece.

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